Electronic Producer Claude VonStroke’s Exclusive Remix for Vogue.com

Electronic music producer Barclay Crenshaw’s red-hot record label Dirtybird originated as a series of music parties that he and his friends would organize in a San Francisco park. “My friends and I weren’t psyched about what was getting played, so we started a party in Golden Gate Park,” explained Crenshaw (aka Claude VonStroke, a name that was originally intended to mock European techno DJ names but ended up sticking). “We played what we wanted to hear, and eventually people started coming,” he added. When the parties became hugely successful, Crenshaw’s wife gave the then–Men’s Wearhouse commercial video editor an ultimatum. “She said, ‘I will pay your rent and expenses for one year while you try to start this record label. In that time, if you can make enough money, you can do it for the rest of your life. If you don’t, then you have to get a job for the rest of your life.’ I went crazy, I worked so hard,” explained Crenshaw. “We were hand-stamping our first records ourselves. I even had people going to other record companies to steal their mailing lists . . . I did anything I could.” His efforts paid off: Part of what distinguishes VonStroke’s work in the electronic music scene is the fact that his label is American-based. “All of my touring used to be in Europe. When I started Dirtybird, I knew I had to go through Europe in order for this to work since techno is mainstream there. The first person who would even listen to us was a distributor in Frankfurt. Back then, I would only get gigs in Europe and I would fly there using my own money. It took a while, but now techno is getting big in the U.S. and I don’t have to go to Europe as much. But in the beginning, that was the only way to do it.” As for the man behind the remix? “He’s only 20 years old!” exclaims VonStroke of Justin Jay, who he found by listening to a demo Jay mailed to the label. “Justin remixed a track off my new album called ‘Sugar & Cinnamon.’ I had a bunch of remixes made, and this one is my favorite. My original song is a funk jam, his is a more DJ-able version.”